The present invention relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to methods of forming semiconductor devices and structures.
In the past, the electronics industry utilized various circuits to detect an electro-static discharge. Most prior circuits required an antenna to form a signal and then used electrical circuits to process the signal from the antenna. The size of the antenna made it difficult to place the prior ESD apparatus within an integrated circuit. The antenna also increased the cost of the ESD apparatus.
Other ESD apparatus that did not use an antenna could only detect a positive electro-static discharge. This limited the usefulness of the apparatus.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a method of forming an ESD detector that reduces the cost of the ESD detector, that can be integrated onto an integrated circuit, and that can detect both positive and negative electro-static discharge events.
For simplicity and clarity of the illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures denote the same elements. Additionally, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description. As used herein current carrying electrode means an element of a device that carries current through the device such as a source or a drain of an MOS transistor or an emitter or a collector of a bipolar transistor or a cathode or anode of a diode, and a control electrode means an element of the device that controls current through the device such as a gate of an MOS transistor or a base of a bipolar transistor. Although the devices are explained herein as certain N-channel or P-Channel devices, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that complementary devices are also possible in accordance with the present invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the words during, while, and when as used herein are not exact terms that mean an action takes place instantly upon an initiating action but that there may be some small but reasonable delay, such as a propagation delay, between the reaction that is initiated by the initial action.